Each year, the Bank of Hope Founders Cup honors the pioneers of the LPGA – the women who have had the greatest impact on the LPGA Tour and women’s golf. These pioneers have worked hard to make the game what it is today.
This year, the event is paying tribute to two pioneers who not only excelled inside the ropes but who also helped advance the game of women’s golf as ambassadors who promoted the sport their entire lives. Major champions Sandra Post and Hollis Stacy are this year’s honorees, each an excellent example of how an athlete can make an impact on those around them.
Post was the first Canadian to play on LPGA the Tour. During her rookie season, she competed in 26 events resulting in nine top-10s and became the youngest major champion in LPGA history at the 14th playing of the LPGA Championship. It was a record she held for 39 years until Morgan Pressel won the 2007 ANA Inspiration. That year, she became the first Canadian to capture Rookie of the Year honors, only other was Jocelyne Bourassa who earned it 1972.
“When I won the LPGA Championship in 1968 it was almost too quick I had just been on tour for only six months, so I didn't appreciate it at the time, as much perhaps as I should have,” Post told LPGA.com. “We were very fortunate I think when I came on Tour in 1968, it was a link to the past because we got to play with so many Founders but again it also linked us to the future. I stayed on tour for 17 years, I saw the purses increase, and television come on board, so I think it was such a wonderful gap to be so blessed to start our careers in the late sixties.”
To be recognized as a Pioneer, one of the many trailblazers of the LPGA, means a great deal to Post. She is still active in the game but feels that golf has given her more than she could ever think of giving back.
“To still be able to have a career in golf is an amazing thing because careers end young, but how do you stay in the game that’s what you have to figure out,” explained Post. “I feel very lucky to have remained in the game for this long. As a Pioneer it is great to come to this tournament, of course, you see the three remaining Founders, but you also get to see so many of the Tour players and meet the young ones, they are just so glad to meet us.
“We’ve passed along the torch, I passed it on when I left the game in 1984 to Dawn Coe-Jones and Gail Graham, and they passed it on to Lorie Kane, and she has passed to Alena Sharp and Brooke Henderson, and that’s all you can do,” said Post. “That’s how you grow the game. It was passed to me from these Founders, and you just hope you pass it, and they do the best they can for the LPGA and to grow women’s golf because by growing women’s golf you’re growing women all around the world. That’s a great thing where it’s a far reach, it’s a sport yes, but it’s so much more than that.”
Stacy has 18 career wins, including four major titles. She captured her first of three U.S. Women’s Open victories in 1974 before repeating as champion again in 1975 and 1984. Her record in major championships was nothing short of impressive recording 16 top-10 finishes including her four titles and went nine consecutive seasons with a win (1977-1985).
“We owe so much to Marlene Hagge, Peggy Kirk Bell, I think maybe how we can honor them and give to the players is give back to the game,” said Stacy. “If you have fun with the game, then everybody is going to do well, the gallery, the marshals, sponsors will be coming, I think if there is more fun in what you do, you enjoy yourself more and everyone wins. I mean play hard, but you just enjoy yourself more. That’s what I try to convey to my friends out here is to be more efficient and forget the bad shots. Remember to be kind to those that help run the tournaments, and you’re paid back in spades.”
Stacy was recognized during the LPGA’s 50th Anniversary in 2000 as one of the LPGA’s top-50 players and teachers but is most proud of her family being honored as Family of the Year by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association of America in 1985 for their contributions to the game.
“I’m not a teacher, teacher, but I try to help people get the ball in the hole and overcome their mistakes and learn from their mistakes,” explained Stacy. “Golf isn’t about how good you hit the ball; it’s how good you can forget your bad shots and how you can make a beautiful par after having a horrible drive.”
These women represent the best the sport has to offer, both on and off the course, and they helped elevate the LPGA after the 13 founders passed the torch on to their generation. The Tour would not be the same without the achievements of women like Post and Stacy, and today’s players know full well the impact the duo had on the game they all love so much.
So, it’s fitting that this week in Phoenix, at an event created to pay homage to the LPGA’s pillars of the past, that pioneers like Post and Stacy are given the recognition and thanks they deserve.
Well done ladies, well done.
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